Daily News

France: Crit looking for US acquisitions

04 April 2013

French recruiter Groupe Crit (CRIT:PAR) published this week the final figures for the year 2012. While revenue figures had already been disclosed earlier this year, the latest release indicates that the group’s gross profit after tax, depreciation and amortisation slipped by -15.5% in 2012 to reach €40.7 million, compared with 41.9 million in 2011. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, the group’s General Director in charge of the temporary staffing side of the business indicated that the decline was primarily due to a €5.1 million depreciation of the goodwill of the Spanish operation.

On the topic of the group’s primary market, CEO Nathalie Jaoui confirmed that, in France, the temporary staffing business had suffered a blow due to increasingly challenging conditions. She added that the revenue generated by the staffing business in the country declined by -9.7%, whilst the market overall had decreased by -8.5%. She also indicated that the group decided to stick with a strict pricing policy in order to reduce the impact of the market conditions on the group’s margins. She commented: “we are confident in our ability to keep the business profitable while at the same time not focusing too much on revenue as such”.

The recent announcement also contained some good news. The recent acquisitions in the US are already driving growth for the international business where revenue increased by 60% in 2012. Nathalie Jaoui announced in the same interview that the group is planning further acquisitions in the US on the East Coast, “most likely in H2”. She adds: “Groupe Crit’s operation in the US managed a two-digit growth rate since the beginning of the year, which is very encouraging”.

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